Travel to Bretagne

Day 4 Mur de Bretagne - Quimper (126 Km.)

(in 56 Km.) You can go to Le Faouët. Surrounded by forests and streams, is a charming Breton town that retains, in the main square, the old market building, made of slate, granite and wood (XVI). It is also a good place to make quiet trips and Eclogues.

Le Faouët

(in 21 Km.) Quimperlé: another pretty village situated at the confluence of two rivers. You can visit, in the Ville Basse, and the abbey church of Sainte Croix and, in the beautiful street Dom Morice, the municipal museum. Another street that also worth seeing for its beauty is Brémond d'Ars. In the Ville Haute you can visit the church of Saint Michel Square.

Quimperlé

(in 17 Km.) Pont Aven: a beautiful village that gave its name to a school of painting. Located between rocks and rivers still retains the nostalgic water mills that made his fortune. You can take a stroll through the beautiful Bois de l'Amour or to visit the interesting local museum. It is also one of the best sites in the region to buy the famous Breton biscuits.

(in 8 Km.) Concarneau: At 24 km of Quimper. It is a city with a great tradition of fishing and a very active harbour and hence one of the most animated on this side of the coast. You can visit the walled city (Ville Close), located on the water in the centre of the port, and in it the Museum of Fisheries. In the harbour is the Marinarium, with very interesting marine exhibits. If you want to make good pictures go to the auction from 10 p.m. and if you want take a bath, go to the beach of des Sables Blancs and of course, here you can eat good fish.

Concarneau

(in 24 Km.) Quimper: Old Quimper extends around the cathedral and at the margins of rivers Odet and Steir. There are many pedestrian streets, which run between medieval houses with low wooden balconies and concave rooftops. Some streets retain suggestive names (place du Beurre, venelle du Poivre, venelle du Pain Cuit), remind us that the offices of the occupants or old anecdotes that gave rise to legends. As background these streets almost always find the twin towers of the cathedral.

The cathedral of Saint Corentin is dedicated to the first bishop of the city, and also patron of it. A legend says that the saint get a fish every day, of which only ate half, throwing water to the remaining half. The next day, at lunchtime, the fish appeared again intact. The building, Gothic style Breton, was built between centuries XIII and XV. The equestrian statue corresponds to Gradlon King, a legendary Breton king. The interior, which has some admirable windows of the fifteenth century, presents the curiosity of to have the nave (XV) diverted from the chorus line of (XIII), because it has belonged to a previous building.

Quimper

To the right of the cathedral is the former bishopric (XVI-XVII), which houses the Breton Departmental Museum. In a few rooms will be presented very well restored collections of archaeology, history and regional economy: antiques and art of low Bretagne, popular costumes of Cornualles, household objects and ceramics. The building is surrounded by a garden, which narrows to one side with the remains of the ancient wall (XV).

Upon leaving, the Parc street leads to the channel of the Steir, surrounded by pedestrian streets. In one of the margins is the New Market, which despite having been built in this century harmonizes well with the environment. We arrived at the Place Terre au Duc, with beautiful old houses. This is the secular neighborhood, where you can find the prison, the market and the court. At one end of the square, rue Saint Mathieu also retains several old houses. We crossed the river Steir and arrived at Kéréon street, former street shoemakers (Kéréon means shoemaker in Celtic), one of the liveliest and most commercial of the city. Around it, the squares au Beurre and Médard and the streets de la Boucherie, Sallé, Guéodat and Elie Fréron that preserved interesting medieval buildings. Since the last of these, street du Moulin Vert leads to the Museum of Fine Arts, whose visit is recommended by the wonderful collection of French paintings, Flemish and Dutch who owns and needs to add a room dedicated to Max Jacob and another to the local school of Pont Aven.

To conclude the visit can go to neighborhood Locmaria. There is an interesting Romanesque church (XI-XII), but above all is the place of settlement of the craft of porcelain factories, installed in Quimper from the seventeenth century. Among them, Faiencerie HB Henriot which houses a small museum dedicated to porcelain.